Hires, promotions and other news

Havas Montréal has hired John Pankert as director of strategy. Pankert spent the last two years as a strategist at Sid Lee, but prior to that was a team lead at TP1, now a part of Havas Montreal. Pankert will work across clients on the agency’s strategy team, led by Stéphane Mailhiot.

Vibrant has made two additions to its creative team in Toronto. Alexandra Maxwell, previously director of client success at Waterloo’s Honeypot, has been hired in the newly created role of associate director of creative and strategy. Taylor Hunt has also been hired as the newest designer on Vibrant’s creative design team, having previously worked at The Mint Agency and Boom.

Montreal digital agency Avenue 8 has added to its strategy strength. It has hired Marie-Ève ​​Lajeunesse Poulin, previously a social media strategist at La Vie en Rose, as its newest digital strategist, and promoted Rudy Nassar, who has been with the agency for over a year, to director of development.

New business

On top of its new director of strategy, Havas Montréal has also picked up new digital assignments with institutional investment company Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, redesigning and reorganizing its digital properties and its real estate subsidiary Ivanhoe Cambridge, designing the online presence of its newest property, Manulife House.

Experiential agency Mouse Marketing has picked up new project work with Philips, building a strategy for the Philips Innovative Kitchen Appliance division for activations in retail trade and premium retail, focusing primarily on the Philips Digital Airfryer.

All natural home and body product brand The Unscented Company has selected Montreal’s Canidé to lead creative and strategic development for its social media platforms.

Media

Nestle’s Kit Kat brand has partnered with theScore on a new branded content series focused on personalities in the growing eSports space. (Available to Media in Canada subscribers)

Bell has renewed its fight against the CRTC’s ban on simsub during broadcasts of the Super Bowl by offering a new potential solution: showing Canadian ads during the game in exchange for producing and promoting a special broadcast consisting of the U.S. ads. The NFL, CMDC, ACA and ACTRA were among the organizations that are supporting Bell’s application. (Available to Media in Canada subscribers)

Montreal ad tech company SourceKnowledge is expanding with new offices in Toronto and Los Angeles. (Available to Media in Canada subscribers)